What's behind Rupert Murdoch's trash-talking of Google? - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine

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Read Between the Lies What's behind Rupert Murdoch's trash-talking of Google?

By Jack Shafer

Updated Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, at 5:49 PM ET

Rupert Murdoch knows two modes: doing things and talking about doing things.

When he's doing things, nobody does so more decisively and with greater impact than Murdoch. Take, for example, his destruction of U.K. union power at Wapping , his purchase and transformation of the old Metromedia television group into the Fox Broadcasting Network, his acquisition of Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, his aggressive entry into satellite broadcasting around the world, his poaching of NFL football from CBS, his establishment of the Fox News Channel, his wily and victorious bid for MySpace, and his carbon-cutting initiative , just to name a few of his unswerving exploits.

And then there is Rupert the talker, who preaches about the importance of free speech and civil liberties while routinely undermining them with his actions in China , who talks the Tory line until it suits him to talk Labor and then only until it serves his interests to switch back to Tory. If Murdoch bothers to say something, it's almost an even bet that he's lying. Upon taking over the New York Post in 1976 from Dorothy Schiff, he assured all that "the political policies [of the Post ] will stay unchanged." We all know where that one went. He has bleated on and on about the glories of the free market ...

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http://www.slate.com/id/2235055/